not forbidden by the law of man, which are forbidden by the law of God; as lying in common discourse, jeering, calumniating, ingratitude, selling too dear, out-witting and over-reaching in bargains; extorting, and taking advantage of the necessities or ignorance of others; importunate entreaties and temptations of our companions to many instances of sin, as intemperance, pride, and ambition; all these strangely blind the understanding, captivate the affections of sinful men, and lead them into many snares of the Devil, of which they are not aware. Some sins are thought inconsiderable, and are called sins of infirmity, as idle thoughts, foolish talking, impatience, anger, and keeping trifling company. Many things are thought to be no sins, such as mis-spence of time; whole days or months of useless or impertinent employment; gaming; winning men's money; censuring men's actions; equivocation in the prices of buying and selling; rudeness in speech or behaviour; doing actions in themselves good, with sinister and evil designs, and the like.

Now in all these cases it is necessary to be inquisitive, and very careful that such kind of fallacies does not prevail over the sick; but that those things which passed unobserved before, should now undergo an impartial censure, excite religious sorrow, and heart-felt condemnation.

To this may be added some such enquiries as the following, in regard to the omission of his duty; for in many instances the failures in these important points are undiscerned, because the conscience has not been made tender and perceptible of them.

Have you neglected public, family, or secret prayer, reading the Scriptures, instructing your family in the principles of religion? Have you redeemed time? Have you grown in grace, and done all the good you could? Have you relieved the needy, comforted the afflicted, and visited the sick?

1

Have you been wanting in obedience, duty, and respect to superiors, especially to parents? Have you done the work of God negligently, not discharging the duty of your station with fidelity, care, and exactness?

Have you ever duly weighed the malignity and deceitfulness of sin?

Sin is the greatest of all evils, as it is our curse and death; as it is the cause of our separation from God; and as it exposes us to everlasting condemnation.

Yet multitudes, who call themselves Christians, live without any true notion of the heinousness of sin; the misery of an unpardoned state; the worth of a Saviour; or the nature and necessity of repentance towards God, and of faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.

They are baptized, but live and die without knowing, without enquiring to what valuable end their baptism serves. They go through a round of religious services in a formal lifeless manner, on which might properly be written, To the Unknown God. They hope all is well with them; but their hope is centred in themselves, in the conceit of their own worthiness, in partial performances, and not in Christ, of whom they make little account; and consequently it is an unscriptural hope, utterly insufficient to the rest and repose of an immortal soul.

Thus are they deceiving themselves, and ruined through the deceitfulness of sin.

Helps for conversing with the sick on the nature and necessity of true repentance.

True repentance is a change of mind, a thorough renewal of heart and life. You must not presume it is right and perfect, because you feel a degree of sorrow, and express a degree of compunction for your sins.. This may and undoubtedly often does

spring from worldly motives, from the sense of our sufferings, and the temporal evils which our sins may have drawn upon us. True repentance is much more than this. It is a real, heart-felt sorrow for our sins, as offensive to God, and ruinous to our souls; as a sufficient cause for God's indignation, and of our everlasting "destruction from "the glory of his presence." *True repentance is an abhorrence, a detestation of sin, as defiling our nature, and necessarily separating us from a pure and holy God, who can have no communication with sinners, and who therefore to expiate their sins sent his Son to die on the cross! And, if repentance be sincere, it must go still farther. It not only trluy laments what is past, and wishes to undo it, as far as possible, at any price; but it resolves in just abhorrence of sin, and its destructive nature, to fly from its practice in future, and to direct all the thoughts, words, and actions by that love of God, which is holiness; and by that rule of life, which alone, through divine grace, can lead to the favour of the Almighty.

The truly penitent sinner will daily, hourly, and continually look up by humble faith to Him, who was "wounded for our transgressions, and bruised "for our iniquities." He will chiefly delight in reading or hearing the blessed Gospel, and will rejoice to know and feel, that "there is no other name "under heaven whereby we can receive health "and salvation, but only in the name of our Lord "Jesus Christ!" Happy to be assured, that by an entire confidence in him, and perfect resignation to` his holy will, he shall at length, however worth

* "It is wonderful," says the great Lord Clarendon in his Essays, "that there is not one Christian in the whole world, how "different soever in other opinions, who professes to have any "hope of salvation without repentance; and yet there are so few "who take any pains to be informed about it, or know how to "practise it." There never was an observation more suited to the genius of any age or people than this is to that in which we live.

less in himself, obtain pardon and peace, and be numbered with the penitent in heaven.

Permit me then to ask you, Do you perceive in yourself this repentance, this undissembled contrition in your heart? Are you truly sensible of your numberless offences, and of your eternal ruin without the merits and mediation of the great Redeemer? Do you in the bitterness of your convicted soul thus lament, "O wretched man that "I am!" and ask, "Who shall deliver me from "the body of this death?" O wretched man, that I am thus defiled with sin, thus an enemy to God by wicked works, thus self-destroyed, where, where is my hope? O Saviour of the world, who by thy precious blood hast redeemed lost mankind, have mercy on me! O Saviour of the world, save me and help me, or I perish!

If this is indeed the sincere language of your heart, I congratulate you on this blessed dawn, this opening of a future better day. Let me press you then to a conduct, which both to yourself and others will give all possible proof and satisfaction, that the work of a real repentance is begun in your heart.

It is an undeniable truth, that sin never did, never can, nor ever will either make man happy, or produce him any solid and substantial good; so the sooner you absolutely quit all its love in your heart, and its practice in your life, the greater comfort will you gradually receive, and find every day more and more serenity of soul; however at first, as it is reasonable to expect, the stings and reproaches of a convinced conscience may be sharp, piercing, and sometimes painful, very painful: but be not discouraged by these; rather consider them as proofs that your soul is alive, and be incited by

* See Hosea xiii. 9. " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but "in me is thy help." This is the case of every convinced sinner, till his reconciliation to God by Jesus Christ.

them, as motives to a zealous perseverance in the great work of reconciliation with God. To this end endeavour to be much in meditation and selfrecollection. And one thing you must do, for without it all the rest will be hopeless; you must not fail to lift up your heart in prayer to God on every convenient occasion for his assisting grace, and merciful favour to you. Remember, prayer is not a mere repetition of words: it is the language of the heart, expressing a due sense of its wants and woes to that God, who hears the prayers of all his people, and knows all their circumstances. You should continually thus express your heart to him your heart conscious of its evils, deploring them, and desirous of pardon for them, and deliverance from them. You should moreover continually dart up earnest petitions to the Father of compassions, fervent ejaculations to the throne of grace in every place and at every time. In short, keep your heart fixed and intent upon God, turn to him in sincere desire, and it will turn to him in the language of that desire; for it will pray.

Give me leave to observe, that what I advise to you is that on which I depend myself for salvation. I confess* myself a deeply humbled, penitent sinner. On Christ alone is my hope and trust; on Christ, as accepting my soul in true and unfeigned repentance, and perfect submission, offering up its unworthy self before him.

You may be fully assured, that, unless we pray for his divine and all-powerful grace to work in us this repentance and resignation, this love of him and of holiness, this universal charity and goodwill, we cannot in the nature of things be

par.

"We are

*See the Confession in the Communion Service. "heartily sorry for these our misdoings: the remembrance of them "is grievous to us; the burden of them is intolerable."